Anycube 3D printer

[Ancientmariner]

Good evening all.

I have been pondering an anycube 3D printer for sometime now and wonder what the general thoughts are on this?

I want something for printing flames of war models and add on parts and the occasional replacement part for model kits.
How easy are these to print? I am reasonably computer literate however are these print files literally downloaded and then printed or is there a lot more to it?

All feedback welcomed.

James

[Neil Merryweather]

Good evening all.

I have been pondering an anycube 3D printer for sometime now and wonder what the general thoughts are on this?

I want something for printing flames of war models and add on parts and the occasional replacement part for model kits.
How easy are these to print? I am reasonably computer literate however are these print files literally downloaded and then printed or is there a lot more to it?

All feedback welcomed.

James

James,
there's very little that is straightforward about 3D printing, - until you have been doing it a while....
Don't spend any money until you have read this thread https://www.scale-models.co.uk/threa...16#post-689528
this is just brilliant and hopefully will tell you all you need to know about it from our perspective.
good luck
N

[Dave Ward]

Good evening all.

I have been pondering an anycube 3D printer for sometime now and wonder what the general thoughts are on this?

I want something for printing flames of war models and add on parts and the occasional replacement part for model kits.
How easy are these to print? I am reasonably computer literate however are these print files literally downloaded and then printed or is there a lot more to it?

All feedback welcomed.

James

James,
3D printing? Are you talking about FDM printing, or resin? I can give quite a bit of feedback on FDM printers, from my journey with printing, starting January this year.
Personally I had to go with FDM printing, as the downsides of resin printing - toxic chemicals & vapour, extensive post printing clean-up are not feasible in a mid-floor flat!
Whichever way you go, it's quite a long learning process, before you start getting passable results. You have to have a lot of patience, and accept the inevitable failures & it's slow - print times are in hours, rather than minutes!
Printing is just the final process, there are a lot of model files available, free & paid for on the Internet, but if you want to create your own models, then that's a totally different rabbit hole!
Dave

[JR]

You've had replies from the two members who know what they're talking about James .
Good luck with your endeavours.

[Dave Ward]

James,
the process of preparing models for printing is basically simple. Models generally are found in .stl, or .3mf formats. You need to open these in a slicer programme. There are any number of slicers, most of them free! I use PrusaSlicer, not because it's any better ( they're all similar ), but I know where all the settings are through using this programme solely. The slicer will generate a .gcode file, which are the commands to the printer. The model is imported, then sliced, however there are very many parameters to be set in the slicer, like build plate size, layer height, speed - most of which you can set once & save as a configuration. Tricky parts are things like % Infill, wall thicknesses, and especially supports. The printer can't print on thin air, so it needs supports adding. Programmes do this automatically, or you can do it manually ( experts ), these supports can be easily removed after printing ( providing you've got the settings right ). Supports depend on the geometry of the model & its' orientation on the build plate - the orientation is a really tricky thing - and you need to experiment to find the best for your machime & model. Once you have sliced the model, the resulting .gcode can be saved, in my case to a micro sd card & transferred to your printer, although wi-fi is common for transferring files .
These comments are pretty general for both FDM & resin printing, there are specifics for each type, which will have to be considered.
There's always a lot to think about! - and this is just the software side....................
Dave

[Gary MacKenzie]

as an aside

Theres a very cheap and very capable resin printer getting good reviews , one such review @

If you go to the link he provides the resin printer is





They are temporararily out of stock in UK , but a 2k resin printer plus a wash/cure station package at just over £200 is well below any other manufacturers package deals.

[Ancientmariner]

Thanks for all the replies, some great food for thought!

[Ancientmariner]

James,
3D printing? Are you talking about FDM printing, or resin? I can give quite a bit of feedback on FDM printers, from my journey with printing, starting January this year.
Personally I had to go with FDM printing, as the downsides of resin printing - toxic chemicals & vapour, extensive post printing clean-up are not feasible in a mid-floor flat!
Whichever way you go, it's quite a long learning process, before you start getting passable results. You have to have a lot of patience, and accept the inevitable failures & it's slow - print times are in hours, rather than minutes!
Printing is just the final process, there are a lot of model files available, free & paid for on the Internet, but if you want to create your own models, then that's a totally different rabbit hole!
Dave

Resin Dave but really wheat ever is best for my needs.

[Dave Ward]

Resin Dave

Hmm - I've no idea whether this guy is an alarmist. but it's worth watching

- Home 3D resin printing hasn't been around that long, so have any long term problems start to show?
Dave

[Gary MacKenzie]

He has no decent ventilation , even an open window would be better than the system he is using.
He has sealed the windows ..............

"there's nothing I can do about it" ....... even I can see solutions which he hans't even tried

Personal opinion : Many of youtube 3d printing ''gurus'' have spoken about resins, their effects and solutions ....... they have more people watching their content , so he has made this video to draw people to his channel
He has done the opposite with me , he is scare mongering and not using already suggested solutions to help with his problem.

It's similar to people saying ''airbrushes make a terrible smell , I don't use a paint booth , and there's nothing I can do."

[Dave Ward]

He has no decent ventilation , even an open window would be better than the system he is using.
He has sealed the windows ..............

"there's nothing I can do about it" ....... even I can see solutions which he hans't even tried

Personal opinion : Many of youtube 3d printing ''gurus'' have spoken about resins, their effects and solutions ....... they have more people watching their content , so he has made this video to draw people to his channel
He has done the opposite with me , he is scare mongering and not using already suggested solutions to help with his problem.

It's similar to people saying ''airbrushes make a terrible smell , I don't use a paint booth , and there's nothing I can do."

Surely the answer to this is an enclosure? Remember fume chambers in the chemistry labs at school? - Obviously not as big, or fancy, but large enough for the printer - reasonably airtight, with connections for air filters, or whatever. I've seen them for FDM printers to keep a constant temperature, but why not uv curing printers?
Dave

[Tim Marlow]

Surely the answer to this is an enclosure? Remember fume chambers in the chemistry labs at school? - Obviously not as big, or fancy, but large enough for the printer - reasonably airtight, with connections for air filters, or whatever. I've seen them for FDM printers to keep a constant temperature, but why not uv curing printers?
Dave

Seems logical Dave. Just an overhead extractor ducted to outside would do the job I think, especially for the volumes we are talking about. It doesn’t even need to be that airtight, just enough to pull sufficient clean air over the printer. Chemistry lab fume cupboards are literally just a way of containing the fumes and pumping them to the outside where the fumes get massively diluted. Filtration only becomes necessary when you are using the fume extraction system to control chemical fumes in an enclosed area where the fumed air will be recycled back into the room and access to the outside is neither possible or advisable.

[Andy T]

Sorry to jump in but I see Anycubic have their Photon mono 2 on sale at £149. £228 with the wash & cure 2.

Seems like a bargain for a branded 4k set up but with resolutions getting finer all the time is it worth paying extra for 8k, or even their new 12k machines?

Without seeing prints from the various machines side by side its hard to decide if the extra investment is worth it for the kind of things we're likely to make in our hobby.

https://uk.anycubic.com/products/photon-mono-2?variant=44837344608541

[Gary MacKenzie]

At present all 12k printers ( consumer level ) use oblong pixels , so you get a resolution in x that is diferent to y

e.g. Elegoo Saturn 3 Ultra --- 10" ,12k , 11520 pixel by 5120 pixel , 19 x 24 microns ( oblong pixels )

so the orientation of a print will decide which part has the slighly lower quality ( probably impossible to see with naked eye )

the smaller brother printer , a Elegoo Mars 4 ultra --- 7" , 9k , 8520 x 4320 , 18 microns ( square pixels )

If you can handle using a smaller build plate the Mars 4 9k has a better resolution than the Saturn 12k , and should produce better output.

There are lots of reviews on Youtube that go into details further than this.

The alkaid i linked in a previous post is 51microns.

[Andy T]

Thanks Gary. I'll need to read that through a few times for it to sink in lol.